Scouts return to ranch after flood

by anthony a. mestas
the pueblo chieftain

Published: July 8, 2014;Last modified: July 8, 2014 09:33PM

WALSENBURG — A little more than a year after the East Peak Fire raged through their camp leaving a blackened scar, 96 Boy Scouts again were called upon to test part of their motto, which is to be prepared.

CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/FILE
A member of Venture Crew, Troop 22, (carries a burnt log last August as she helps clean up the area southwest of Walsenburg after the East Peak Fire. Venturing is a Scout program for young men and women.

Floodwaters rushed through the Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch early Tuesday causing the banks of Bear Creek to swell into the ranch.

A thunderstorm that started west of the ranch dropped rain for hours, officials said.

The Scouts were evacuated shortly after 3 a.m. Scout officials said no one was injured and there was only minor damage and flooding to a maintenance building.

All of the ranch’s program facilities and activity areas were left intact.

The American Red Cross provided meals and shelter for evacuees at the Walsenburg Community Center. County Road 340 at the Shangri La entrance was closed. No other evacuations were ordered.

Michael Stewart, scout executive for the Santa Fe Trail Council, which oversees the ranch, said his Scouts were prepared.

“Before troops come to camp, a lot from Kansas and Colorado and Texas, we do a lot of preparation of handling an evacuation out of any camp situation,” Stewart said.

“Our guidebook that they are given includes a training module that they can do in their own home to be ready. And once they are at camp, we do drills at least once or twice a week.”

Stewart said since the fire, Scouts have been helping to fix the land on the ranch and surrounding areas that were burnt.

“We’ve been doing a lot of conservation work on the upper end of our camp where the fire burned through,” Stewart said.

“We have been taking down trees that were either burnt up or dead because of the pine beetle. Just to help absorb water and get the soil back into a reasonable shape.”

When the East Peak Fire ignited near the ranch on June 19, 2013, a group of 170 Boy Scouts acted fast as billowing smoke covered the picturesque mountains west of town.

Scouts participating in a rock-climbing exercise noticed the smoke and later saw flames. A camp director reported last year the fire and an evacuation methodically went into motion as it did Tuesday after the flooding.

Bear Creek returned to its natural banks Tuesday at about 11 a.m. and Scouts were allowed to return to the ranch at about 1 p.m.

Chieftain news partners at KRDO NewsChannel 13 reported that mud was knee deep at the ranch and the flood carried debris nearly 50 feet from the banks of Bear Creek.

The ranch is coming to the end of its camping season, Stewart said.

“As usual the Red Cross does a wonderful job of opening up evacuation centers and really providing great service to our kids. We are appreciative to them as well as to the Huerfano County Emergency Management group that helped us quickly move everyone out of harm’s way,” Stewart said.